After attending their conference in February for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the National FGM Centre invited our Savera UK Youth leaders to speak at their event RSE: The Role of Education in Responding to FGM and other Harmful Practices.

The event by the National FGM Centre discussed ways educators can introduce the topic of female genital mutilation with young people and parents. Under new guidelines, FGM is to be taught in secondary schools to educate on the dangers of the practice. The new reforms will include relationship education for primary age pupils, relationships and sex education (RSE) for all secondary pupils.

There was a lot of backlash towards this education reform but the reality is that the girls undergo the practice primarily between their infancy and teenage years. Hesitation to educate on these issues come from teachers and educators being concerned that they do not have a right to speak up about another culture’s traditions, however female genital mutilation and other harmful practices such as breast ironing are a violation of human rights.

Savera UK attended the informative seminar and one of Savera UK’s Youth Advisory Board members, Malcolm, spoke about the importance of educating younger generations about these issues. “We are the future,” he said, “we need to encourage others to shout out about these issues.” Malcolm also read his poem ‘A Woman’s Mind’ to which he received great feedback and support from those who attended the seminar.